Opener for envelops or wrappers.



No. 679,066. Patented July 23, I90]. W. S. TIMMIS;

OPENER FOR ENVELOPS 0R WRAPPERS.

(Application filed Mar. 16 1900.) (No Model.)

Fig.1

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- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WALTER S. TIMMIS, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO JAMES T. RUSSELL, OF SAME PLACE.

OPENER FOR ENVELOPS OR WRAPPERS SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 679,066, dated July 23, 1901. Application filed March 16; 1900. Serial No. 8 949. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WALTER S. TIMMIs, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of New York, borough of'Brooklyn, county of Kings, State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Openers for Envelops or Wrappers, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has reference to means combined with an envelop whereby the same may be quickly and neatly opened without the use of such implements as are generally employed for that purpose.

One object of the invention is to so combine the opening, means with the envelop in the process of manufacturing the same as that such means will be practically concealed or, at least, not so exposed as to be'liable to cause the envelop to be accidentally opened by entanglements with objects in the mails; but it is sufficiently exposed to indicate its presence and to permit it to be readily lifted and be torn out when it is desired to open the envelop.

A further object is to provide an efficient opening means that will add no appreciable weight to the envelop or wrapper and which will add only a slight additional cost in the manufacture.

I am aware that wires and cords have been combined with envelops as means for opening the same; but such opening means have obvious disadvantages, some of which I have specified in another application for envelopopeners, Serial No. 8,948, filed on the same date with the present application. I am also aware that fiat tearing-strips have been employed as envelop-openers; but those with which I am familiar are not wholly efficient, because of their mode of application, as they have either extended beyond the edge of the envelop and were thus-liable to be torn out in transit or were placed wholly within the envelop, so that their presence was not obvious and they were difficult to get at.

Myimprovement is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a plan View of the inside of a blank of an envelop with the opening device applied at the crease of a side flap. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the back of the envelop completed.

While in the drawings I show the envelops providedwith a single opening device, two of said devices may be applied to each envelopas, for example, at both ends or at the top and bottom. The drawings also show the opening devices applied to the flaps; but they maybe applied to the body of the envelop below the crease of the flaps, though preferably they are applied as shown.

Referring to the drawings, in which similar parts are designated by the same numerals of reference in both views, 8 indicates the body of the envelop; 9, the lower flap; 10, the sealing-flap, and 11 the side flaps.

The opening device that I employ consists of woven fabric or fibrous material, such as strong paper, which will be out from a roll whose width is substantially the length or depth, as the case may be, of the envelop to which the opener is to be applied.

The opening device is indicated at 12.

In Fig. 1 the opener 12 is securely gummed on the side flap 11 at,the crease or fold and in length is substantially the width of the flap at its crease, but terminates in a notch between the bottom flap and a side flap. Said notch is formed with a cut or side 12 substantially lengthwise of strip 12 and a side 12 substantially at right angles to the strip. In Fig. 1 the notch has a second side 9* parallel with the strip and at a' distance equal to the width of the strip from side 12.

In Fig. l the strip-opener is gummed to one of the side flaps, one end of the strip being cut square and terminating at the edge of the flap, and the other end, 12, projects slightly beyond the edge of the flap, as shown, and the adjacent portions of the flaps 9 and 11 are cut away at 9 in order that when the envelop is completed, as shown in Fig. 2, the projecting end 12 (not gummed) of the strip 12 will be exposed to permit it to be easily lifted with the finger-nail when it is desired to open the envelop, which is done by tearing away the strip and the adhering portion of the envelop.

It will be observed that the strip 12 has one of its surfaces securely gummed to the material of the envelop and is not merely fastened at one point only. The efiect of this is that when the strip is pulled in the act of opening the envelop it does not cut the edge of the envelop, but removes from the envelop a strip of the substance of the envelop of the same dimensions as the strip. In other words, there is torn from the envelop by a practically clean cuta section of the paper of which the envelop is composed. It will also be observed that the strip-opener has no loose ends hanging from the envelop to attract attention or to be interfered with in any Way. In fact, the envelop to the'casual observer will not appear difierent from an envelop which does not contain the opening means,

Having thus described my invention, What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

An envelop having flaps 11, 9 at right angles to each other, an opening-strip gurnmed on one side to the inside of the envelop, a notch between said flaps, said notch having a side 12 parallel with said strip, close to the strip and terminating in line with the end of said strip, the notch having also a side 9 parallel with the strip and at a distance equal thewidth of the strip from the side 12 Whereby said strip which overlies the envelop space is out from under both flaps at said notch.

Signed at New York, borough of Manhattan, State of New York, this 14th day of March,

WALTERS. TIMMIS. Witnesses:

J. E. M. BOWEN, M. O. PINCKNEY. 

